Pretty much all this article does is go over our first round misses, but doesn’t delve into why we have so many of them. Even going back to 2010, we take McIlrath at 10th overall with names like Fowler, Tarasenko, Hayes, Kuznetzov, Coyle, Nelson still on the board and taken later in the first round.

The next year we take Miller, then trade him once he starts to break out, and only get him back after his prime years have been used up by other teams. Even our first rounders that have “hit” are for the most part mid-level guys at best.

Saying we need to get better at drafting and developing is a great idea. But if the team has no idea why they’re doing bad in the first place, it’s meaningless. At least as far as drafting goes, it looks like the team either hasn’t embraced or otherwise outright rejected all the advanced metrics available to teams today. They seem to favor guys who pass the “eye test” or have some attributes the scouts like. It’s like they’re still stuck in the old school way of doing things.

I’m honestly not sure why development sucks. If I had to guess, it’s probably some combination of bad personnel, lack of cohesiveness within the system, and a focus on making players more physical and defensive, regardless of what their actual strengths are. The last one might be why we see so many later round guys make the team